A Podcast About Columbo

Sorry, I Don’t Have a Willy

In “A Deadly State of Mind,” George Hamilton plays Dr. Mark Collier, a deeply, deeply creepy psychologist. Complications with his patient/lover, played by Lesley “No ‘Ann’ For Some Reason” Warren threaten his career and murder ensues, but Columbo is on the case. RJ, Jon and guests Brenna Zedan and Anne Moloney (of the LadyLike Book Club) dig deep into this tale of barbituates, swimming, hypnosis, unethical medical practices and beige leather. As Anne says, it’s not a good episode for ladies and dogs.

Count me in for the Columbo/Zardoz ticket. When Jon first said “Zed” I wondered if it was going to be a Pulp Fiction connection. By the time he got to the end of the sentence, the only thing that kept me from punching the air was that I needed to maintain control of my bicycle.

Actually, I think Forest Whitaker is a surprisingly good idea. My all time fav idea is Christian Slater. If you’ve ever seen him in Prince of Thieves, there are a couple of parts where even his mannerisms are Columbo-ish.

One of my mid tier episodes. I quite like it but it’s not one of the best. The “party” scene is very strange. One of the many episodes where phones play a big part in the set up and execution of the murder and one of those episodes where there are more than one murder.

As a Columbo fan how could you not want to see it again? the only episode I can’t watch is “Undercover”. There are a few episodes where they strayed from the usual formula of the show but “Undercover” goes way off track. That one and “No Time To Die”.

This episode is special for me because it sparked the moment I fell in love with Columbo. I watched it as a kid, but didn’t really pay much attention to it. It was adult TV which I wasn’t interested in. I preferred The Six Million Dollar Man.

Anyway, so my children were young and I was off work one day (I’m a nurse, so was often off work during the week, for working the weekends). It used to run on A&E in the early to mid-90s. A&E was a good station back then and had a lot of historical documentaries in the morning and so forth. Then on came Columbo.

So I was changing the channel to A&E to see what was on. It was just as Lesley Ann Warren picks up the phone. I wondered what was wrong with her (I had always liked her and thought she was hilarious in Clue). Then I watched as she took a dive off her balcony and I had to watch to find out why!

It was like being introduced to a drug. I couldn’t get enough. I began recording all of them and watching them as often as I could, sometimes rewinding (yep, ye olde VHS) and watching the same one several times in a row!

Have you ever watched Cold Justice? Kelly Siegler is a prosecutor (a real one) and she says in just about every episode. “I love circumstantial cases!” Remember that many cases are built on circumstantial evidence. In the 70s we didn’t have DNA, AFIS, Closed Circuit cameras (in banks, but not everywhere) and all the resources that we have now. Circumstantial evidence was pretty powerful at the time.

We are so used to seeing female forensic scientists (Dana Scully, Molly Hooper, Bones Brennan) that it seems like to update Quincy, you’d almost have to have a woman. I LOLed at the comment that we are out of Klugmans and we didn’t plan ahead. So sad but true.

Idris Elba on TV in anything would be amazing!

I feel like part of why Columbo broke the mold and stayed out all night/lost his temper was down to the fact that he knew the murder victim, and if she HAD committed suicide, he might feel some guilt over her death. It’s important to him personally that he proves it was a murder.